ZestMoney Raises $50 Million from Australia Zip

ZestMoney, a Bangalore-based buy-now, pay-later platform, announced on Wednesday that it has raised $50 million in a new funding round led by Australia’s Zip, as the Indian startup tries to capitalize on a trend that has shown early signs of popularity in numerous worldwide markets.

As part of the new Series C financing round, the eight-year-old Australian firm, which has a presence in 12 markets across five continents, is purchasing a minority investment in ZestMoney, according to the two.

The fresh financing round hasn’t closed yet, according to ZestMoney, because current investors will be involved. Goldman Sachs, Quona Capital, PayU, and Xiaomi are among the early supporters of the business, which has raised over $110 million to date.

About ZestMoney

Lizzie Chapman, Priya Sharma, and Ashish Anantharaman created ZestMoney in 2015, which is India’s largest and fastest-growing consumer lending fintech startup. ZestMoney is a platform that aims to enhance the lives of more than 300 million families in the United States that now lack access to credit cards or other forms of formal financing due to a lack of credit history. By connecting customers with our loan partners and managing their credit for them, ZestMoney’s unique platform leverages mobile technology, digital banking, and artificial intelligence to make life more affordable for millions of Indian consumers.

The World Economic Forum named ZestMoney a 2020 Technology Pioneer for their breakthrough technology and work to make inexpensive digital finance accessible.

In India, where just a small percentage of the population owns a credit card, the buy now, pay later business is still in its infancy. However, in a market dominated by traditional powerhouse Bajaj Finance, a few startups such as ZestMoney, Capital Float, and LazyPay are beginning to gain popularity.

Due to India’s low credit card penetration, only a small percentage of the population possesses a standard credit score, which banks use to determine a person’s creditworthiness before giving a loan. Furthermore, tiny loans do not yield high profits for banks, so they have less motivation to make such checks.

ZestMoney claims to evaluate other data points and apply AI to assist these individuals in building a credit profile and becoming credit-worthy.

The firm, which claims to have over 11 million members and 25 banks and non-banking financial partners, collaborates with significant retailers including Amazon, Flipkart, Google Pay, Apple, and Xiaomi to provide clients with BNPL services. According to ZestMoney, it has a presence in over 75,000 physical establishments and over 10,000 internet sites.

The startup’s product spans in price from 50 Indian rupees (68 cents) to $6,777, with a repayment time ranging from a month to two years.

“This is a strong endorsement of our position as India’s market leader in the Buy Now Pay Later category. In a statement, Lizzie Chapman, co-founder and CEO of ZestMoney, stated, “The transition to Pay Later solutions is a global phenomenon that symbolizes young digital consumers wanting for openness, honesty, and no hidden charges in financial goods.”

“We expect that India, like many other growing markets, would forego traditional products like credit cards in favor of digital payment options. On our platform, BNPL applications have increased by 5X in the last year. Over the next five years, we expect India will emerge as the world’s largest BNPL market.”

Conclusion to ZestMoney

On their website, ZestMoney has stated the five (5) reasons why they are the obvious choice of its customers. These are:

• A zero % interest on their product, with no membership fees, and no hidden fees whatsoever,
• A three-step rapid approval procedure with no paperwork, and no credit card required for approval
• That their product is accepted at 10,000 online businesses and 75,000 physical retail stores, with
• More than 11 million users, who have downloaded the app, which has a 4.7 rating onn the Google Play Store.

At African IT news, we find the mantra of ZestMoney “there is a lower price to pay, but there is more time to pay” very appealing. It is an app we will encourage those who can, to download and use because Zest breaks down your large payments into smaller bits, making it more affordable to pay in installments over three to four months.